Railway track horizontal gauge



Nov. 26,1957 P. GROSSMANN 7 2,814,119

RAILWAY TRACK HORIZONTAL GAUGE Filed Aug. 12, 1954 INVENTOR United States Patent RAILWAY TRACK HORIZONTAL GAUGE Paul Grossmann, Renens, Switzerland, assignor to Materiel Industriel S. A., Lausanne, Switzerland, and Constructions Mecaniques S. A., Renens, Switzerland, both corporations of Switzerland Application August 12, 1954, Serial No. 449,399

2 Claims. (Cl. 33-144) This invention relates to an improvement in the detection of irregularities in the alignment of railroad tracks and more particularly tomeasuring the horizontal coordinates of a railway track.

It is an object of this invention to provide a measuring vehicle having cars attached thereto each of which has only a pair of sensing elements.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a car attached to a measuring vehicle in which the sensing elements elfect both the measurement and the car guidance.

These and other objects of this invention will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description taken together with the accompanying drawing in which the figure is a top plan view of the device of this invention.

This application is related to my copending application Serial Number 414,830, filed March 8, 1954.

In this invention each car is connected to the vehicle by a coupling forcing it to keep a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the railway track when the latter is rectilinear, and also keeping it in a radial direction on curves. The vehicle is provided with one element which is in constant orientation with each carriage. The free end of this element is located in the neighborhood of its respective car and serves as fixed point for the measurements effected by the sensing rollers of the car.

A vehicle has been shortened in order to facilitate its representation.

In a frame 44 rolling on the track 45 by means of axles, the axles have been omitted so that the wheel rims appear only in the two outside sections of the vehicle.

In this description of the proposed arrangement the left side of the figure is explained in detail. A car 46 with sensing rollers 47 is aligned with the vehicle on a rectilinear stretch of track and the sensing rollers are urged toward and kept in contact with the track by means of springs.

This car 46 is connected with framev 44 by means of two coupling bars 48 of the same length; they form an isosceles triangle with part of the car 46 as base.

The apex of this triangle is connected with frame 44 at 49 and articulated. The parts described are removable; when no measurement is effected, the carriage may be suspended under the vehicle or placed on the latter, as described in my copending application Serial Number 414,830.

By this means the car 46 is always maintained in a transverse position to the track on the rectilinear stretches of the latter; on the curves, it is practically radial as shown at the right side of the figure. The car 46 does not need two axles to guide it. It rolls on the sensing rollers 47, which makes the car 46 notably lighter.

Two tubes 50, of equal length, attached to frame 44, form a second isosceles triangle. Its apex 51 is located in the immediate vicinity of the car 46. Sincetheorientation of the two tubes 50 remains invariable, the point 51 represents a fixed point with respect to the pendulumlike motion of the car.

Cables 52 are attached to the sensing rollers 47 of the car 46 and passover pulleys before entering their respective tubes 50; inside the tubes 50 the cables 52 are carried to the recording devices of the vehicle.

Tubes may be removable or else articulated with respect to the'vehicle at the connecting point 53, so that when the car 46 is removed from the vehicle, the tubes 50 may be folded laterally against the frame 44, as has been described in my above-mentioned copending application. This method of attachment by articulated tubes 50 is illustrated in the figure.

Referring in detail to one of cables 52 which leaves one of the tubes 50 at 52', we see that its other end, passing'through 52", is connected to a sensing roller 54 of a right car 55 which touches the same track the same as the roller 47 to which this cable 52 is attached at the other end.

Car 55 is on the curve of the track which illustrates how it oscillates pendulum-like with its connecting rods, while the tubes guiding the measuring cables invariably keep their orientation.

Cable 52 has been displaced in the direction of arrow 56 with respect to the starting position of cable section 52"; for this reason the reversing sheave 57 over which passes the cable has moved in the direction of arrow 58.

Another cable 59, is tied to this reversing sheave; the cable 59 passes through a second reversing sheave 60, and is connected to the central sensing roller 61 of the vehicle frame 44 which is also in contact with the track.

Finally cable 62 is tied on one end to the reversing sheave 60, and on the other to spring 63. The spring 63 controls the movements of a pen 64 of the recording device whose graph 65 is marked by the pen 64.

It is easy to prove that the movements of this pen 64 are a measure of the deflection of the railway track are circumscribed by the sensing rollers 47, 61, and 54 on the side considered. This is independent of the proper motion of the vehicle frame 44.

An identical arrangement enables one to record independently the deflections of the opposite railway track.

Various modifications of the above-noted embodiment may be made without departing from the spirit of this invention. For example, the cables may be replaced entirely or in part by chains or equivalent coupling means. As the above-embodiment is for the purpose 'of illustration only it is intended that the invention be limited solely by the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

l. A device for determining the camber of the longitudinal contour of a surface of track rail comprising in combination, a frame supported on said track rail, a sensing roller transversely movably mounted on said frame in contact with the surface of said track rail, means yieldingly urging said sensing roller transversely toward said track rail surface, an attachable car supported on said track rail, a second sensing roller transversely movably mounted on said car, a second attachable car supported on said track rail, a third sensing roller transversely movably mounted on said second car, second means yieldingly urging said second sensing roller transversely toward said track rail surface, coupling means attaching said car to said frame to maintain said direction of motion of said second sensing roller transverse to the axis of the rectilinear portions of said track and radial to' the curved portions of said track, second coupling means attaching said second car to said frame to maintain said direction of motion of said third sens-- ing roller transverse to the axis of the rectilinear portions of said track and radial to the curved portions of said track, third means yieldingly urging said third sensing 2. A device in accordance with claim 1 in which the roller transversely toward said track rail surface, a cable guide means comprises tubes Which are fixedly positioned connecting said second and third sensing rollers, guide with respect to the frame and surrounding the first cable means for said cable, a sheave constructed and arranged to direct said first cable from said cars to the frame.

to receive said cable and be displaced by movement of 5 said cable in response to relative transverse displacement References Cited in the file of this Patent of said second and third sensing rollers, a second cable UNITED STATES AT connecting said first sensing roller and said sheave, a

second sheave constructed and arranged to receive said 12 second cable and be displaced in response to relative dis- 10 placement of said first sheave and said first sensing roller, REI N PATENT and means actuated by displacement of said second 657,880 prance Jan 21, 1929 sheave to record movement of the same. 

